Adventures with Jeff: Nepal (Part 1)

Meet Jeff Basting. As a native of Dover Plains, NY, Jeff is living the Compas life traveling around the world processing refugees as an officer for the US Refugee Admissions Program. Before joining the Refugee Corps, Jeff spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Thailand, and two more exploring mountains and beaches up and down the west coast as a Southern California weekend warrior.

Jeff will be our featured guest blogger as he checks in from the road and he invites you to #ExploreMore as you read about his experiences and adventures.

Adventures with Jeff: Nepal (Part 1)

Quest for the Barbeque Chicken Hut

Finding “the barbeque chicken hut in the middle of the rice paddies” was a rite of passage. There was no map, only legend. It was Sunday afternoon, and we had been eating all of our meals for more than a week now on a UN compound in southeast Nepal where we also lived and worked. The tall walls that protected the compound loomed around us, and the sound of the traffic and the vendors outside beckoned us with reminders that there was a world outside, and that it was busy. Here’s what happened as we spend a Sunday winding through everything from spice markets to yak farms en route to the best grilled meat east of the Himalayas:

Cabin Fever on the compound.

The maps were sort of tough to read, #LetCompasBeYourGuide

#uberNepal

Hay is for horses...and yaks.

Faced with a shortage of cooking fuel, farmers without electricity use solar cookers provided by UNHCR to heat up everything but the planet.

Your coach, m'lady. #Ridinrickshaw

Over the paddies and through the woods...

Everybody's working for the weekend...

Except this guy...

Found it! #followyournose

Chicken Accomplished!

All washed down with a mug of tangpa-

fermented millet seed and hot water. #exploremore

Stay tuned for more of Jeff's adventures in Nepal.

As his work allows, Jeff will be updated on a weekly basis.

For more information on information on the Refugee Admission programs,